Two sides close to agreement on governance

The two sides are converging on the issue of governance but have yet to reach the finish line, President Christofias said on Friday after the second of two consecutive meetings this week with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.


However, according to the UN Special Representative, Taye-Brook Zerihoun, the two leaders “discussed each other’s proposals in a very constructive manner”.

Talat on his part said the talks went well, adding that both sides presented “wise and correct” proposals responding to the concerns of the other.

The two leaders will continue discussing governance and external relations next week and begin the second reading on property. If they fail to come to agreement on executive power, the issue will likely be moved to the third “basket” of issues for which no convergence has been found. These issues will then form the fodder of a give-and-take session between the two leaders in the final round of negotiations.

“We expect difficulties in the near future and everyone must show the utmost self-restraint, political maturity and determination to claim our rights without violating our principles,” said Christofias.

Before yesterday’s session, the two men met representatives of civil society from both sides when fifty NGOs handed a resolution to the two leaders, pledging to support the process by “opening and maintaining channels of communication, building mutual trust and promoting reconciliation between the two communities”.

The resolution calls on both leaders to properly inform the general public on the negotiations so that it may discuss the details of any progress achieved and possibilities for the future “in a positive and constructive way”. Clarification on the ongoing negotiations will help avoid vagueness, confusion, unfair and uninformed criticism, said the NGOs.

The two leaders pledged to do all they could to achieve an agreed and mutually acceptable solution which will reunify the island. Diverting from the tactic of his predecessor, Christofias praised the role of the NGOs, noting “we need a Cyprus for the Cypriots”. The president identified foreign intervention as the greatest source of the island’s problems.

“We want the foreigners to be helpful without intervening in the internal affairs of the United Federal Republic of Cyprus…We want a Cyprus, which will belong to its children, both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots,” said Christofias. To achieve this, he added: “We have to work in a friendly atmosphere, understanding and meeting the concerns of both communities.”

Talat highlighted that the will and support of the people for an agreed solution was needed “to really establish a peaceful country, a peaceful United Cyprus”. He added that support from the international community, of “any power which may have any positive say”, was also needed in the talks.

An editorial in the Cyprus Mail says there were no surprises in the European Commission’s eagerly-awaited progress report on Turkey. While it noted Turkey’s failure to implement the Ankara protocol and to normalise relations with the Cyprus Republic, the Commission avoided any reference to punitive sanctions which our political parties had been demanding.

This caused widespread disappointment among the Greek Cypriot political parties which had argued that Turkey should have been penalised for the refusal to implement the protocol. The mood of the politicians could not have been improved on hearing Turkey’s EU negotiator welcoming the report and describing it as “positive and balanced”.

We were deluding ourselves if we thought the Commission could have allowed Ankara’s failure to implement the Protocol to turn a positive report negative and include sanctions. This would not have encouraged the Turkish government to proceed with the reforms the EU considered of vital importance at this stage in accession procedure. But as usual, most of the politicians in Cyprus betrayed their tendency for wishful thinking in raising sanctions’ expectations.

It appears that the only politician who made a realistic evaluation of the situation was DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades. He had predicted that the Commission would not consider sanctions, especially while peace negotiations were in progress in Cyprus. He also pointed out that there was no way the European Council would impose sanctions against Turkey in December because unanimity, which was necessary for such a decision, would never be achieved. He proposed a pragmatic approach, by which discussion of sanctions could be put back to June. In the intervening period the Cyprus government could undertake a series of actions that would strengthen its position and help it secure certain practical advantages.

It is no coincidence that the party leaders who wanted sanctions imposed on Turkey are those who are opposed to the current peace efforts. They would have been overjoyed if sanctions were imposed and the talks collapsed as a result, because for them, punishing Turkey is an end in itself. Scoring a meaningless victory which they could brag about on the radio stations is all they seem to care about, because the success of the peace talks is not a concern.


Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will be visiting Cyprus tomorrow on an official trip, during which he is scheduled to meet with President Christofias and the political leadership as well as Archbishop Chrystostomos.

Papandreou said on Friday that the Cyprus problem is Greece’s basic priority. “Finding a fair and viable solution to the Cyprus problem, with the UN decisions as the basis, the principles and treaties of the EU and full respect to the European acquis communitaire, is our basic priority,” he said.

Unlike his predecessor, Costas Karamanlis, who chose to sit on the fence, Papandreou is expected to take a more active role in efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem. “We fully support the intensive efforts of President Demetris Christofias,” Papandreou said. He added that his country will once again stand next to Cyprus not just verbally but with actions.

Shortly after his election, Papandreou paid a flash visit to Turkey. He spoke to Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan about the need to show a more “conciliatory” approach on Cyprus. He also spoke directly to the Turkish people on the need to talk straight about problems and to solve them. He called on both countries to help free Cyprus of motherlands, occupation troops, walls and division.

4. Coffeeshop
The Sunday Mail's weekly satirical column Coffeeshop last week referred to Papandreou's election in Greece. He says he seems a rather mild-mannered, laid-back, softly-spoken chap, with the appearance of a kindly, secondary school headmaster, not the Alpha-male type of autocratic leader who would intimidate, bully and inspire fear in anyone. This is one of the reasons why Greeks condescendingly refer to him as Giorgakis - he looks and behaves like a boy - even though nobody ever accused him of being a Playstation devotee, like his predecessor was supposed to be. The consensus is that he is a bit wet, despite the moustache.

However the election of this liberal and gentle man has spread fear and panic on the island of love, where a section of the population view him as a Turk-loving, US-worshipping, champion of the A-plan, who will push for the speedy closure of the Cyprob. Last Friday’s visit to Turkey where he met Prime Minister Erdogan and his foreign minister, confirmed the worst nightmares of the island’s hard-liners and ‘never’ campaigners, because they realised that good relations with the savage Turks would be the priority of Giorgakis’ foreign policy. To achieve this ignoble objective, he would start to meddle in our affairs, pushing for an unfair settlement and urging us to pull our pants down for his friends the Turks. Apart from all the pro-Turk foreigners, we would have the new, Greek PM also nagging us to accept an unfair and unjust settlement.

Worse still, the ‘never’ supporters cannot resort to the customary, hysterical, hate-campaign they employ against all meddlesome foreigners, because he is Greek. His American mother may be brought into the picture, before long, as proof that he is not a pure Greek and therefore a legitimate bash-patriotic target. Papers like Simerini were seething because Papandreou had filled his cabinet with individuals who had publicly supported the “Annan monstrosity”. With these “Amerikanakia” (US-supporting kids) he would try to “close” the Cyprob, warned the paper, a firm believer in keeping it open for future generations.

Nobody really knows what comrade presidente is thinking about the Greek PM’s overtures to Turkey. I suspect he is not too happy with Giorgakis’ sense of urgency, because he likes things to move at a slow pace so he does not feel there are suffocating time-frames. Last Thursday he showed his commitment to slow-paced talks by getting the second scheduled meeting of the week cancelled on the grounds he had a stiff neck. If he were playing tennis with Talat, you could understand it but since when does a stiff neck prevent you from sitting down and talking? A skettos-drinking customer almost choked on his skettos when he heard the news. “How can he have a stiff neck?” he asked. “The guy doesn’t have a neck.”